Storing Beer
Drink faster.
That’s what one friend told me once, when I was researching different ways to store beer, or “cellar” beer. Let’s look at some alternatives.
@TheHopsHoney's Happy Spot
First off, not all beer is meant to be stored long-term. Beers with “fresh” ingredients, such as a super fresh hopped IPA, generally aren’t as tasty two years down the road. They’ll be interesting, for sure, but the hop flavor tends to go stale.
Barrel-aged beers, sours, stouts, porters, other super malty brews, these are beers that age well. Low hops, high malt, and high gravity. When you age a beer, the flavors tend to mellow and even out. It’s also nice to have beer on hand. If you have a good cellar, you can find a beer for any situation or pairing.
My collection was pretty small until my visit to Total Bev. I think I had about four bottles of commercial and one or two homebrews. Then I gained another dozen and a half, and storage became an issue.
One of @TheArtOfBeer's many overfilled beer fridges
So, the topic at hand is how to store beer. Especially if space is an issue. If you’re trying to age your beer, you don’t want to store it at your normal fridge temperature. That’s too cold, and it will take many years for any noticeable change to occur. Room temperature is definitely an option, unless you live in a hot climate. Let’s not microwave that bottle of Stone Vertical Epic 02.02.02, alright?
55˚ or so seems to be a good standard for aging beers. Keep it out of the light. Keep it upright.
Also, remember to be patient. I know, it’s hard to see all that beer sitting on the shelf and not be tempted to open a few. When you’re buying beer for storing, buy at least two bottles. One of them you’ll want to open and drink right away. This serves two purposes. One, you can see if you like it. If not, it might not be worth storing it for years, just to be disappointed with the outcome. Two, it serves as a base for comparison. Take notes if that’s your style. Then, when you decide to open the beer’s pair, you can compare how it aged. Science!
@chuckularone likes organizing his homebrew by batch number
If your place of living maintains a moderate temperature, you could just store your beer in a nice cool dark closet. Bam, done.
If not, you might need to purchase equipment.
My find on Craigslist - upright chest freezer for $75
Go on craigslist.org. Buy a fridge or chest freezer. Get a temperature control device, such as this one from Northern Brewer. Put your beer in it. Open it a year later. Enjoy. You can also buy a wine fridge, except that that forces you to store your beer on its side. Not as advised as upright storage, but it works.
There is a lot of great information out there on more specifics on long term beer storage. Here are a few, should you want to pursue the topic further:
- Beer Advocate – How To Store Beer
- Beer Utopia – How (and why) to age beer
- The Brew Basement – A blog on beer storage
- Brew Advice – How to store beer
- Brew Advice – Beer Refrigeration Suggestions (Long Term)
How do you store your beer? Leave some tips or some pictures of your stock pile!
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by hookedonwinter: Fresh from the Hop Press – Storing Beer — http://bit.ly/cPnrh8...
I have a converted wine fridge. I ripped out all the shelves to allow for upright storage.
Also, if you’re worried about electricity bills, using a fridge that’s unplugged is still acceptable as long as it’s in a cool part of the house. The insulation will prevent the temperature fluctuations that lead to poor aging. Adding a chilled beer to the collection every now and then should bring the ambient temperature down ever so slightly.
Yeah. I am really bad at storing beer. I have a cellar of 12 wine case boxes full of beer. All are probably very unproperly stored.
Wench = #fail
Your collection is sort of ridiculous…
Man I just fail at saving beer. Patience is not one of my virtues, sadly. I do have a couple that I have managed to put away… and by a couple I literally mean two.
Ah well…
I’m saving some for you..
I just put my beers in the book of a dark closet in my apartment. Just worried what to do in the summer when my apartment gets hot b/c it doesn’t have central AC.
Why waste time and effort storing beer? Wouldn’t it just be better to buy it aged already? This practice seems a bit snobbish and elitist to me. If a beer has to be aged that long in order to enjoy, it probably isn’t worth drinking.
I don’t find it a waste of time, nor snobbish / elitist. I think it’s awesome to have beer ready to go for any occasion. Storing it properly lets me share those beers with friends, without having to worry about it being skunked.
Beer doesn’t have to be aged to enjoy, but aging it allows one to enjoy it differently. Breweries, for the most part, don’t have the resources to sit on a beer for a year. It’s one reason so few breweries make sour beers. They take at least 9 months to make, which is extremely resource intensive. Lost Abbey spends 3 years on their Duck Duck Gooze. That’s a long time, when a batch normally takes 2-3 weeks.
While cellaring beer may not be for everyone, and I agree for some it may be a waste of time, I very much disagree that it’s snobbish or elitist. Next time you’re in Denver, come see my collection, and see if you think I’m a snob
I cannot agree with you on that one….I just had a 2009 Dechutes Abyss and then a 2007 Abyss…the 2009 was great but the 2007 was the best beer I have had to date….ever. Every detail about the beer was magnified 20 fold but more balanced than the fresher bottle. It was amazing. trust me it is not easy to keep them but if you have patience “the juice is worth the squeeze”.
I store mine in what amounts to a basement closet, and as I store it off-site (ie away from my home) it allows me to steer clear of tapping into it at random.
I homebrew so I also have a small wine fridge and converted chest freezer, when I tap into my beer collection I usually grab 9-12 bottles that I plan on drinking in the coming weeks.
If the beer is somewhere cool and not subject to too much temperature fluctation, it’s probably fine. Many breweries store their beer for future samplings in nothing more than a cool corner of the brewery. No temperature control, just stored beer.
The hardest part is not drinking it and once you’ve built up a nice start (10-12 beers) you’ll find that the temptation goes away pretty quickly.
That first photo with the beer books is eerie. I have all of those in almost the same order.
Plus the beers made me so envious.
Thanks for the storage tips. I will change a couple of things in my fledgling collection to improve my chances of a well aged beer.